This review will make your life easier. This specialty is rigorous, but if I can do it, so can you. I recommend reading my Cal Arts UX Review if you haven’t already. By the time you finish this track, you will have knowledge, period. The program claims:
“Integrate UX Research and UX Design to create great products through understanding user needs, rapidly generating prototypes, and evaluating design concepts.”
Does it hold up to its claims?
My Ultra Honest Review of University of Michigan
Course Structure
6 class specialization. 6 projects. 1 project per class.
Duration
9 months. The track can be finished sooner or if you’re determined but, it took me 12 months because life got in the way.
Claim: “Learners will . . .conducting interviews, evaluating systems, and analyzing systems using principles of good design. The final assignment requires students to produce a prioritized list of 5–10 heuristic
violations, complete with screenshots as proof and recommendations. This 6-week course is essential to understand the basics of UX. Takeaway: During my internship, I remembered the 10 design heuristics each time I conducted a content audit.
Claim: “Ideation and site mapping, to the creation of paper and digital prototypes.” In the final project of the 6-week class, students will conduct interviews and use card sorting methods to find key themes in the data. Students will create an analysis based off an affinity wall. Students will be able to sort qualitative data and go through reviews and write recommendations. Takeaway: This class was my lifeline. I sorted qualitative data during my internship.
Claim: “You will learn how to design and conduct tests with users.” During this 4-week course, students will produce reports and undertake remote user testing. After user testing with 2–3 people, students write a Google test report on Google Flights for the final product. I didn’t include it in my portfolio since, while it was thorough, I felt it was a pretty common portfolio piece for boot camp grads. Takeaway: I did not write user test reports during my internship, but knowing the format prepared me with the basis for building reports when I handled data.
Claim: “Learn to evaluate how the default features of a design impact the user experience.” This class lasts 6 weeks; the final project can take several days to complete. Do not rush it. For the final projects, create rough draft sketches and create paper prototypes to prep for usability testing. Takeaway: During my internships, I never used paper prototypes but, they are a cost-effective option for those who want to create an app but, don’t want to learn Figma.
Claim: “Learn survey methodology from the of UX research.” Students learn about AB testing, research, and surveys in this 8-week course. For the final project, students will perform preference testing and write a report, which is an awesome portfolio piece. Students reported confusion, and I agree. Here are some testimonials:
“However I was able to understand his lectures and finish the assignments. But I was very confused during the lecture of the second teacher as her lectures seemed to be complex and unclear.” — Riazul I, Sep 25, 2019
Overall good. Some assignment instructions are quite confusing (e.g., Week 6). — Emma W, Apr 29, 2020 Assignments were very vague, especially the Analytics Dataset. Most of us were super confused. — Rohini A, Feb 16, 2020
How to power through? I suggest the Google Analytics course to learn data analytics rather than the rushed tutorials offered. Takeaway: I am a pretty quick learner but, I had to study on my own.
Claim: “In this UX capstone course, you’ll conduct a multi-stage user experience project to design a product from scratch.” All the blood, sweat and tears of the track testing will go into this 4 week class. At the end, students will conduct a user test session and write a report on the entire design process. You can easily leave with 60 pages of user analysis, drafts prototypes and a final user test and a clickable prototype. This is an excellent portfolio piece. Takeaway: If you do this project carefully, you will be able to tell prospective employers that you performed your own research and can confidently lead research.
Overall summary
Because of the length of this track, I wouldn’t suggest you to take the course and then make your own separate projects. Use each class to build a strong piece. Unlike the Cal Arts UX UI program, this specialty does not teach visual design. I recommend this track for people who already can do graphic design or just like research. What you can’t learn from University of Michigan What is the best way to make this course work? Believe me when I say that the following strategies will help you level up.
Technical design skills
This training will not help you become a great graphic designer. It is what it is. Enroll in graphic design courses. If your team doesn’t understand UX, they will ask you to do graphic design work because “all designers are graphic designers.” Project presentation overload I had no idea how to present my final project in a way that would interest people. If there had been a class for just presenting work for the web and PDF, this track would have been perfection.
Annotation
Annotated wireframes are not mentioned. This sucks because the first day on my internship, I performed 3 content audits with notes.
Accessibility
University of Michigan leaves out accessibility design and designing for emerging markets from its course content (covered by the UX Google Certificate). If you want to knock off one of the above, I beg you to google accessibility and colors, so you don’t have to present prototypes with low contrast.
Suggestions
Here are some concepts that the MICH track doesn’t cover.
Accessibility colors with this WebAim color checker
UX writing for your capstone project so, you don’t confuse users with your buttons and copy.
8 grid systems
Annotate wireframes properly.
Summarize a case study for your portfolio website.
Create a PDF portfolio in addition to your website.
Read my article about how to get started in UX without a masters degree or check out article about how to make your evaluations better with analyzing dark patterns by an unsubscribe link or subscription screen.
This course will give you a strong foundation in UX Design. ️ 5/5 stars for my internship preparation. 4/5 stars for portfolio building. This does not show students how to present case studies, learn it! If you are a great graphic designer, you can take this course and emerge with a well-rounded skill set. How does this compare to Cal Arts? No worries! For people who wish to compare Cal Arts and University of Michigan quickly, I will write a comparison. I got your back!
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